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Family Life

social-policy-family

An open and liberal society is characterised by a flourishing civil society, of which strong families are a fundamental part. The family unit should be valued and subject to minimal government interference, but there are challenges to this principle. To what extent should the state support the family? Is paternalistic intervention in dysfunctional families justified? How and when should the state act to strengthen the family? CIS research on family life works to address these issues.

Publications

  1. The Power and the Responsibility: Child Protection in the Post-Welfare State Era

    Jeremy Sammut | 08 Sep 2010 | Occasional Papers

    Government-run child protection services in Australia are plagued by systemic problems, including a misguided emphasis on... Read More...

  2. Family on the Edge: Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession

    Barry Maley | 13 Oct 2009 | Policy Monographs

    Barry Maley argues that unless family law and policies rapidly change, family stability and a buoyant birth rate will be... Read More...

  3. Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness

    Jessica Brown | 05 May 2009 | Policy Monographs

    Solving the problem of high family joblessness will require reform of the welfare, tax, and industrial relations systems.

  4. Million Dollar Babies: Paid Parental Leave and Family Policy Reform

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2008 | Issue Analysis

    Support for the introduction of paid parental leave has been so vocal that rather than being a means to an end, paid parental... Read More...

  5. Baby Steps Toward Self-Funded Parental Leave

    Jessica Brown | 18 Sep 2008 | Issue Analysis

    The debate about increasing the aged pension highlights the fact that, once again, government handouts lead to increasing... Read More...

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Opinion & Commentary

  1. Statistics, lies and DoCS

    Jeremy Sammut | 12 Jul 2010 | The Drum

    One–third of NSW children aged 12 to 17 have been reported to the Department of Community Services and this research shows ... Read More

  2. Equal Help for Home and Working Mums

    Jessica Brown | 28 May 2010 | The Australian

    A  new parental–leave scheme should not be based around the kind of work their mothers do or don't do, we should design ... Read More

  3. Working Versus Stay–at–Home is Not the Mother of All Battles

    Jessica Brown | 25 May 2010 | The Age

    Parental leave policy should reflect the variety of different decisions that families make about how to divide their time ... Read More

  4. Woo mums and big end of town

    Jessica Brown | 10 Mar 2010 | The Australian

    The enthusiasm with which the Opposition Leader has embraced the cause of working mothers shows just how keen Tony Abbott ... Read More

  5. Antidote to welfare dependency

    Jessica Brown | 19 Jan 2010 | The Australian

    The federal government’s extension of income management across the country, announced late last year, reflects a new consensus ... Read More

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Ideas@TheCentre

  1. 3 images and 1 solution: A modern-day ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’

    Jeremy Sammut | 18 Dec 2009

    In 2009, Dantean images of child abuse and neglect have reminded us that child protection authorities continue to fail vulnerable ...

  2. Picking on soft targets

    Sara Hudson | 12 Jun 2009

    The case of the Northern Territory teenager known as Kunmanara is yet another example of the failure of government to protect ...

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